Departing June 9, Ryan Gilhuly and Dwight Smith will embark on a journey , attempting to pedal from the Atlantic Coast, New Haven, CT to the Pacific Coast, Santa Barbara, CA with no amenities, hoping for anything the west has to offer and to raise awareness and donations for the Connecticut Burns Care Foundation's Arthur C. Luf Children's Burn Camp.

A message from the Connecticut Burns Care Foundation

Ryan and Dwight hope to raise $10,000 to support the burn camp, which will host 70 children between the ages of 8 and 18. They are determined to reach the West Coast as a personal challenge as well as helping young burn survivors.

Started in 1991, the Arthur C. Luf Children's Burn Camp is located in northern Connecticut on 176 acres. Every summer, burn survivors come to the burn camp, which is a safe and fun environment that helps kids heal emotionally and physically. The Burn Camp is free to the children, who come primarily from the Northeast and some foreign counteries, but any burn survivor child anywhere is welcome. More than 70 adult counselors, primarily active and retired firefighters and burn unit nurses, occupational and physical therapists, child psychologists and even a doctor will serve as mentors for the week.

It's also our goal to promote burn awareness and fire prevention and education, which we do year around. We sponsor a burn survivor, burned in a car accident that involved speeding and drinking alcohol, who speaks to high school students throughout Connecticut. We also support the burn unit at Bridgeport Hospital, helping to purchase equipment.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Sidling Up to The Rocky Mountains

Matt is a former Division-I basketball player for Colorado State University, who also played professionally in New Zealand for a number of years before returning to the states. Now he gives private lessons and runs basketball clinics for young athletes.

It was our great fortune that our recent mechanical disaster coincided with just such a clinic being given at the high school in Idalia. When I was in town looking for information about how to get to a bike shop, somebody in the post office suggested that I swing by the gym to see which way this out-of-towner would be heading at the end of the day. Turns out he was headed for Denver.

Matt had room in his jeep for us and our stuff, and even had a bike rack (usually used for mountain bikes). "Man," I said, "we really ran into the right guy." We had a great time riding over the Colorado plains and into the city with Matt, and he invited us to come ride mountain bikes with him and his wife tomorrow.

So we cheated about 152 miles on the ground and about 1,500 feet of elevation in a jeep. Any way, we should have plenty of time to atone for our sins in the mountains. Now we're staying with our dear and beautiful friends Bobby and Joanna.